I'm planning on getting a Sega Saturn very soon. As I explained before in some other posts, the console's really captured my interest, and I want to see what games it has in store, especially since it has a noteworthy history in terms of Sega consoles.

It also helps that the person I went to when buying my Dreamcast 3 years ago was also selling lots of other systems, including the Saturn for $100. Since I had no interest in it and was in the mindset of getting a DC, I skipped on it. Now that I've played the Dreamcast (and loved it), I now want to see what the Saturn has to offer.

Anyways, are there any tips or guidelines I should know? Ex.: good price, condition, what model I should get, best games, etc. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.Thanks!

Just some loose thoughts:The model really doesn't matter, but IMO you're probably going to be playing mostly Japanese imports, so you should get a Japanese Saturn. PAL and NTSC games are off the charts price wise right now. You will definitely want an action replay to play imports, and for the extra memory. I would also consider getting a cart flashed with Pseudo Saturn. It will let you play burned games, basically a neccesity if you want to play some of the best games on the system (Panzer Dragoon Saga isn't exactly cheap.) I also recommend the 3D control pad for games with analogue support.

As for best games, here's my favourites:All the Panzer Dragoon games, especially Saga: These are some of the best games ever made, the first two being rail shooters, and Saga being an action RPG. Don't get turned off by it being an RPG, it's really different than most RPGs. One of the best ever made in my opinion. To play it, unless you know japanese, you'll want Pseudo Saturn. If you go the route of buying a Japanese Saturn for it, you don't want the grey one; it won't play PDS via Pseudo Saturn.

NiGHTS: An amazing, surreal game by Sonic Team. Absolutely beautiful, a must have. (It's cheap too).

I'm going to add to that: if you live in Europe and want to want to buy PDS, you will also need a PAL Saturn, as the game is region protected and will NOT work on u Jap or US Saturn even with an action replay, there's codes out there on the web that supposedly will make it work, I tried em all and could not get it going, so it is the one game I kept my PAL Saturn for. I have read this is also the case if you want to play the legit US version on a Jap Saturn, but haven't tried this myself so am not sure about that.

You really want to stay away from PAL & US games, as 1) they are so expensive, it has become ridiculous, 2) bot regions have shit boxes that break easily & 3) (most importantly) you can find most of the Jap counterparts for a fraction of the price, the only PAL games I own (and buy) are text or audio driven ones like rpg's & Burning Rangers.

I also prefer the 3D pad over the regular Saturn pad, because it just feels way better, the build in ten times better compared to the regular one. I also suggest (providing you tv has this), you get an rgb scart cable, as it really unlocks the Saturn colour palette http://www.consolegoods.co.uk

As for games...it's a bit of a mixed bag depending on what you like, it has a ton of shmups, not nearly as much as the PCE, but as far as shmups is concerned, the Saturn is the second best thing out there,it is a bit thin on 2D platformers however, but the ones it has are great (Clockwork Knight: Pepperouchau No Fukubukuro is a must have imo) also has a ton of weird Japanese exclusives and puzzle games, and a lot of old arcade compilations (I like the Saturn version of Capcom Generations best, as it has the arcade version of Ghouls 'n Ghosts running at the correct speed, plus the Snes Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts without the horrible Snes slowdown). If you got games like the original playstation in mind, you should stay away from the Saturn, as you will be dissapointed, it's a 32 bit console, but a completely different machine altogether.

Hey, I'm into collecting Japanese Saturn games (although I'm not aiming for some complete collection, just the ones I want to play), glad to see another gamer being interested in the good ol' Saturn.

Just like the others said - go with a Japanese Saturn, preferably a model 2 one. A whole bunch of amazing Saturn titles were never released outside Japan, plus I like the standard CD jewel cases a lot more than those overgrown NTSC-U/PAL boxes.

Japanese titles are dirt cheap compared to their American/European releases (especially the ones released late in the Saturn's lifespan, like Burning Rangers or Panzer Dragoon Saga). Sure, there are several good games, that will rip your wallet apart (several shmups, Sonic 3D Blast, Ninpen Manmaru or Super Tempo, which currently is around 400$), but the vast majority of them of totally affordable and reasonably priced.

I'm planning on getting a Sega Saturn very soon. As I explained before in some other posts, the console's really captured my interest, and I want to see what games it has in store, especially since it has a noteworthy history in terms of Sega consoles.

It also helps that the person I went to when buying my Dreamcast 3 years ago was also selling lots of other systems, including the Saturn for $100. Since I had no interest in it and was in the mindset of getting a DC, I skipped on it. Now that I've played the Dreamcast (and loved it), I now want to see what the Saturn has to offer.

Anyways, are there any tips or guidelines I should know? Ex.: good price, condition, what model I should get, best games, etc. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.Thanks!

Sonic Adventure is a personal fave of mine, but I know there isn't much of an equivalent on Saturn (except for Sonic World in Jam, I guess). Some other faves would be arcade-ported Sega arcade games like Crazy Taxi, 2D platformers and shumps (which I know the Saturn excels in), as well as Sega Sports games like NBA 2K and 2K1, which is very odd seeing that I'm not a big fan of sports games. :/

Seaman is also something I'd want to try out, but my Dreamcast's clock battery, like many others, doesn't work properly anymore, so I couldn't keep the time without resetting the date every time I went to play it.